Shooting jacket



. 8, 1936. H. 0. SMITH SHOOTING JACKET Filed Jan. 29, 1936 INVENTOR.HowardQSmith ATTORNEY.

Patented Dec. 8, 1936 UNITED STATES FATENT OFFICE 3 Claims.

vide a padded shooting garment that is refined in appearance, durable inuse, and economical in manufacture.

These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

My invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combinationof the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated areattained as hereinafter more fully set forth, pointed out in my claimsand illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. l is a front view of my garment ready for use.

Fig. 2 is a left side view of my garment in use.

Fig. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the left arm sleeve of my garmenttaken on line 3-3 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the left arm sleeve of my garmenttaken on line L- l of Fig. 2.

Shooting garments are universally used by sportsmen and are intended toprovide comfort to the shooter and increase the accuracy of hisshooting. Such garments usually have a pad element over each elbowportion, and a pad element at the gun butt arm socket. Such garments 1find, however, do not have a properly designed or positioned pad elementaround the upper portion of the arm of the wearer where the gun slingstrap embraces it. I have overcome such objections by providing ashooting garment giving freedom of movement and having a self-adjustingpad element extending substantially around the upper portion of the gunsling arm of the user.

Referring to the drawing, I have used the numeral ID to generallydesignate my shooting coat or jacket having the usual sleeves l l andI2. The numeral l3 designates the seam of the sleeve 50 I2 which is thegun sling arm of the garment.

In order that the garment provide maximum comfort and freedom, Irecommend that it be of the inverted box pleat back type as shown inFig. 2. The numeral I4 designates the shoulder arm- 55 pit pad elementdesigned to be engaged by the gun stock butt plate. Such pads aid inprotecting the shooters shoulder from the gun recoil at time of gundischarge and also frictionally yieldingly hold the gun butt in propernon-slip shooting position. The numeral the right sleeve elbow padelement and the numeral i6 designates the left sleeve elbow pad element.The numeral I7 designates my gun sling pad element extendingsubstantially around the left sleeve i2 and overlapping the sleeve seaml0 l3, as shown in Fig. 1.

All such pad elements are preferably of pliable leather and are formedby sewing their marginal edge portions to the garment l0, and placingpadding material I8 such as kapok, cotton, felt, or 15 like between theleather and garment, as shown in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4. The pad elements l5and iii are particularly desirable for prone shooting as they provide asuitable soft cushion for the elbows of the shooter. of my garment,however, is the pad element II. This pad element l! is in the shape of aband extending transversely of the length of the sleeve l2 and has itstwo ends terminating a slight distance apart, as shown. in Fig. 3. Theinner end 25 portion of this element ll substantially overlaps the seami3, leaving the space between the two ends of the pad located as shownin Fig. 1. The top marginal edge of this pad ll extends to a line justunder the arm socket of the wearer and the 30 lower marginal edgeterminates at a line substantially above the elbow of the wearer. Theelongated elbow pad it which extends longitudinally of the sleeve l2 hasits upper end portion over-lapped by the pad 11. In the manufacture ofpadded shooting garments, most pads are sewed on before the garment issewed together. In the case of sleeves, the pads are sewed on and thenthe sleeves are sewed up and onto the body portion of the garment.Obviously, such pads cannot overlap the sleeve seams. It will be noted,however, that the pad I! does by necessity overlap the seam i3. Iaccomplish this by sewing the pad it completely on the sleeve and thepad I! only partially on the sleeve before the sleeve itself is sewedup. The pad I1 is sewed onto the sleeve to points near the seam l3 andthen after the sleeve is sewed up the balance of the inner end portionis lapped over the seam I3 and sewed as shown in the drawing. A gunsling strap 19 5 completely embraces the arm with pressure on the back,outer side, and inner side of the arm.

Garment sleeves have seams on the inner side of the arm so it is obviousthat the pad I! must overlap the seam I3. This is particularly neces- I5designates 5 One of the chief features 2 sary as the large muscle of thearm substantially follows the seam line, and should be protected andpadded. Also, it eliminates a cutting of the seam l3 into the arm by thegun sling pressure. Still another advantage of my construction is thatthe coat sleeve will wrinkle when the gun sling is tightened upon it, asshown in Fig. 4, and this wrinkled condition should not occur on theback, inner, or outer side of the arm. Shooting garments must have loosesleeves and by spacing the two ends of the pad apart, the sleevewrinkles when the gun sling is tightened will naturally occur betweenthe two ends of the pad ll. This important feature of my garment makesit automatically conform to the size of the arm of the shooter at thetime of firing and the arm will be substantially completely surroundedby the pad ll, which is embraced by the loop of the gun sling. Therewill be no tendency for the sleeve of the garment to wrinkle under thepad ll.

The garment shown in the drawing is for right-handed shooters.Obviously, for left-handed shooters the pad i7 is on the right sleeveand the pad M on the left shoulder.

It will be noted that when shooting in the proper position the slingfits very tightly around the arm and the scam in the sleeve must notbind into the forearm. By using my construction, two ends of the slingpad are spaced apart and the coat is permitted to wrinkle naturally atthe forward side of the arm. This does not interfere as the gun slingonly engages the arm in the back, on the inner side and at the outerside. By providing the gap in the front of the sling element, the slingmay be adjusted or tightened about the arm of the shooter. Furthermore,with my garment, the elbow pad and the sling pad work together, braceeach other, and give complete, continuous and uniform support to the gunsling arm of the shooter. By overlapping one pad with the other, thesling strap may be easily removed from the arm as there are noprojections or edges of the pad to catch. Furthermore, there isnotendency for wrinkling between the pads that are mutually supported byeach other.

Some changes maybe made in the construction and arrangement of myimproved shooting garment without departing from the real spirit andpurpose of my invention, and it is my intention to cover by my claimsany modified forms of structure or use of mechanical equivalents whichmay be reasonably included within their scope.

I claim:

1. In a shooting garment, a body portion and a sleeve portion, a padelement on the back portion of said sleeve extending longitudinally ofthe longitudinal length of said sleeve, and a gun sling strap padelement having its ends spaced apart substantially at the front andextending transversally of the longitudinal length of said sleeve aroundthe back, inner side and outer side of said sleeve with its lowermarginal edge overlapping the upper edge portion of said first mentionedpad element.

2. In a shooting garment, a coat portion having a seamed sleeve, a padelement on the back portion of said sleeve extending longitudinally ofthe longitudinal length of said sleeve, and a gun sling strap padelement extending transversally of the longitudinal length of saidsleeve around the back, inner side and outer side of said sleeve,overlying the seam of said sleeve and having its two ends spaced apartsubstantially at the front and its lower marginal edge portionsoverlapping the upper marginal edge portion of said first mentioned padelement.

3. In a shooting garment, a coat portion having a seamed sleeve and agun sling strap pad element extending transversally around the back,inner side and outer side of said sleeve with one of its end portionsoverlapping the seam of said sleeve; said pad element being rigidly andpermanently fixed to said sleeve and with a substantial space betweenits two ends substantially at the front for permitting the sleeve towrinkle when the said pad is in use.

HOWARD 0. SMITH.

